Based on track record, there should be elation the Red Wings and general manager Ken Holland got together recently, as expected, for a contract extension.

It will keep Holland in place through 2018.

Yet, elation wasn’t necessarily the response from the Red Wings’ increasingly impatient fan base. Holland’s approval rating certainly isn’t what it was during the salad days from 1997-2009, as the Red Wings won four Stanley Cup championships, and reached the finals another time.

That is especially true after a summer during which the Red Wings fell woefully short of augmenting their roster via free agency.

The Red Wings wanted veteran Dan Boyle, longtime standout for their former Western Conference nemesis, the San Jose Sharks. He went to the New York Rangers. The Red Wings wanted free agent defenseman Matt Niskanen, who had breakout season in 2013-14 for the Pittsburgh Penguins. He signed, instead, with the Washington Capitals.

Well, you know story. The Red Wings were shutout in free agency. Holland has’t made a major trade this off season.

Also, the Red Wings haven’t been to a conference finals in the Stanley Cup playoffs since 2009. It was also the last time they went to the finals.

It’s been a mixed bag of success and mediocrity. On one hand, the Red Wings put together thrilling stretch runs to just make the playoffs in 2013 and last season. On the other, aren’t the Red Wings supposed to be better than merely another team scrambling to get their postseason spot?

Even the playoffs have sent conflicting messages. The Red Wings stunned Anaheim in the first-round, and nearly upset the eventual Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks in the second round during ’13.

Progress. Then last season, the Red Wings played one brilliant playoff game at Boston as the bottom portion of a first-seed vs. eighth-seed matchup – and were subsequently routed.

The trade deadline deal for David Legwand didn’t provide great dividends.

Holland’s saving grace hasn’t been his trades or free agent signings in recent years, but the draft. He’s missed a lot more than he’s hit recently with his veteran moves (letting Valtteri Filppula go to his protégé Steve Yzerman and the Tampa Bay Lightning as a free agent, while signing Stephen Weiss for roughly the same contract the summer of ‘13, particularly stands out in the minus column).

The Red Wings still have this uncanny knack for drafting and developing young players. Forwards Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar, and defenseman Danny DeKeyser, are particularly promising. If they didn’t develop last season, doom and gloom would have ensued.

Instead, you can see the Red Wings making the playoffs again this season, or even making a deep playoff run, if Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and goalie Jimmy Howard return to form.

The Red Wings were unusually injury-riddled last season. It was arguably the best coaching job of Mike Babcock’s career. He’s won a Stanley Cup. He’s taken both the Ducks and the Red Wings to the finals. He led Canada to two gold medals under enormous pressure in the Olympics.

He is also in the final year of his contract, and Holland has suggested the Red Wings will re-sign him despite rumblings Babcock’s ultimate destination is Toronto.

But like Holland, perhaps Babcock has been the victim of his own success. It’s not like people necessarily want him out, but there is speculation he’s too demanding of the players and it has cost the Red Wings in free agency. Or that his influence on the roster is more hurtful than helpful.

The one comparison I don’t agree with is the one I’m hearing increasingly comparing Holland to Joe Dumars. The Red Wings have been far more successful than the Pistons in recent years. They have made the playoffs. Holland hasn’t made the coaching position a revolving door of scapegoats. He has survived the retirement of two of the greatest players in franchise history, Yzerman and Nicklas Lidstrom.

But the Red Wings haven’t necessarily thrived, either.

They have been merely good under Holland lately when great is the expectation for the Red Wings.

About the Author

Pat Caputo has written as a beat writer and sports columnist for The Oakland Press since 1984 and blogs at http://patcaputo.blogspot.com/. Reach the author at pat.caputo@oakpress.com
or follow Pat on Twitter: @PatCaputo98.